HB + Mazda 24v V6. Now sold and gone to a good home :-)

[yoeddynz]

yeah ok- will do. They are the most lovely seats I have laid my bum in. not as shoulder hugging as say recaros from a rs escort- wider at the top. great lumber support. Finished making plates and tacking raised mounts onto them and then ran outta gas
Made a wooden jig and spirit level to locate mounts rather then shifting seats constantly. Can't wait till i'm finished - I dont really enjoy doing seat mounts for some reason so its a job I've been putting off.

[yoeddynz]

Seats are all done now. As I had the front holes in the right place i just made a jig out of wood and located the rear positions. I then built up little turrets in 3mm steel welded to the plates on the floor, which bolt in place.



We both got under the car with it up on stands and gave it a good chisle and brush. The underseal comes of pretty easy as its gone quite brittle. Luckily the floor is really solid! Still has the red primer in most places. I epoxy mastic 'cated?' the underside of the floor let that set over night as well as painting the brackets with it too. Very snazzy. Seats were bolted in place- so nice. No photos as yet of finished job.. I'm waiting for the right light...

The next day I towed Hannah in the viva behind our '84 1.3 racing sunny. We went to local exhaust guy who did a wicked job of piecing together a nice system out of pipe work and spare mufflers I had. I hate climbing in and out from under car on axle stands welding exhausts together with no proper bends. Glad to get someone else to do it. Put exhaust wrap on the down pipe as its close to the servo. Plus a M18 x 1.5 nut on down pipe so I can fit a lambda sensor.

While he built the exhaust from the front Hannah and I made the most of it being up on a ramp and with tools we took along scraped away as much underseal as we could- mainly at the back where it was thin. Some light surface rust on one side near spare wheel well but otherwise fine. I will epoxy mastic it all. leaving the rest of the underseal down the tunnel for now as its solid and intact. I think I might get it sand blasted later on.

Today whilst also sorting out the dud alternator I had bought I took the tank out, tipped 20 odd litres of petrol into sunny, scraped all the underseal off, discovered some mild pitting that I'm glad I found now.



I filled the tank with water to the top and drilled a new hole.



With tank then tuned on its end, hole uppermost and hannah holding it and filled it up till water came out of new hole. welding away...how do I describe it...booossshhhhh. Ther was till some vapours in there , like sod all but it shot through the pipe and weld leaving a 4mm hole. THis blew my arm which was across the tank up and over me. crikey! That put the jitter up both of us- turned me into the most paranoid welder. I just could believe the affect of such a small amount of vapour!!! It would have been no more than half a litre?

Ive now soldered in a new outlet pipe. 3/8. Now my new pump wont be sucking through a straw.

Noticed that it doesn't have a breather on tank- do vivas breath through the cap? What about HC vivas?

Also today picked up 6 meters of good quality cable for my boot mounted battery. Scrap man bargain- £10 woohoo!

[simon cummings]

Can't speak for HB's, but HC's have a breather pipe that goes from the tank and along the back panel and out near the o/s/r light,I seem to recall.
Coming along nicely by the way!
Somebody once told me that its safe to chuck a lit match in a fuel tank from a distance to burn of residual vapour before welding!
DISCLAIMER:DONT TRY THAT AT HOME KIDS! I certainly wouldn't.

[pbottomley]

[opelscott22]

Well done on the seat mounts, that can be a right pig of a job to do.
Ive never welded a tank, Im too scared. If Ive ever needed to mod one Ive chiselled out a square then made a plate with the new connections on and then riveted it in place with Sikaflex, saves on the nasty burning and explosions.

One of my dads friends was nearly killed in his garage by fumes. He was welding under a car over a pit and must have nicked a pipe with a grinder. The drips and consiquent fumes collected in the pit (heavier than air remember) until one of the welding sparks ignited the lot. He ended up with grade 2 burns and a serious lack of hair.
So easily could have been the end for him.

So Ill never go near a tank with a welder or even a grinder. I hear of people welding them with no problems at all but I wouldnt want to take the risk.

On a lighter note, get some engine bay pics up! I saw them on Retro Rides, it looks awsome!!

Scott.

[yoeddynz]

Yeah Scott- I just cant believe how powerful such a small amount of petrol vapour can be! I thought about it this morning (woke up bolt upright in cold sweat after having image of a petrol tank chasing me down a street) and I just filled the tank with water but didn't empty and refill so the tiny little bit of petrol I couldn't drain out would have sat on top of the water! Me silly boy.

I forgot to mention I had the shakes as I was welding it after 'the event' and then the wind kept blowing my gas torch out when I wanted to solder - we moved tank into shed and when I turned my back it tipped over. 40kgs of tank dropped hitting Hannah's leg and landing on her foot. Then water started gushing out holes onto my beautiful handcrafted plywood shed floor.
It was all a bit Benny Hill (with less boobs, nurses outfits and more petrol)

Light was fading and I had to get it finished as I didn't want to leave it containing any water. Its now dry as a dry bone with some clean oil sloshed about till it gets refilled with nice new better petrol (I say better as petrol has gone up in price again so they must have made it better eh?)

I have heard of people burning the inside out and then filling the tank with exhaust fumes

[yoeddynz]

Oh- and here is a more recent photo...



And here we are getting underseal in our eyes...

[simon cummings]

Hope the handbrake was on properly mate, o/s/r rear wheel looks dangerously close to the edge of the ramp, if it had rolled backwards.

[opelscott22]

I have to say, that engine looks amazing in there...right at home.

Well done!!

Scott.

[yoeddynz]

Cheers Scott. And yeah simon- it was hanging- I actually marked the tyre with a pencil and checked it every few minutes as it was dodgy.